Persons who need the assistance of canes in order to move about often must avoid flexing the legs, waist, or torso to reach for or grasp objects. In order words, such persons have difficulty bending or moving to pick up objects. For example, a person using a cane while recovering from a hip injury cannot bend down to pick things up from the floor.
There are various devices available for those who need to reach and grasp objects without bending or flexing ailing limbs or muscles. Generally, these grasping devices have a handle with a trigger, an arm extending from the handle, and a clamp at the other end of the arm. The trigger and the clamp both are interconnected so that when the trigger is operated the clamp can be selectively opened and closed when reaching for objects.
The above described grasping devices are impractical for use by people who need canes to move about. In particular, when a person walking with a cane chances upon an object that he wants to grasp or pick-up, he will have to walk to wherever he has placed his grasping device, retrieve the grasping device, and then walk back to where the object was located. These extra trips would be an inconvenience even for a fully ambulatory individual. For someone needing a cane while making these trips, the trips are not only inconvenient, but no doubt painful as well. In addition, a person walking with the assistance of a cane has great difficulty carrying the grasping device, which tends to be rather long, while also grasping the cane to move around.
Previous attempts at overcoming the limitations and inconveniences of these grasping devices have themselves been impractical and unsatisfactory. For example, efforts have been made to combine a reaching apparatus with a walking cane; but these combinations, among other disadvantages, are complex to manufacture and difficult for the user to operate. (See Jordan U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,188, Mason U.S. Pat. No. 2,346,038, and Osborne U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,160.) The combination devices known in the art have the further disadvantage of either reducing the structural integrity of the cane in order to include the reaching apparatus or appending the reaching apparatus to the exterior of the cane in such a way that the reaching apparatus may pose a safety hazard to the user of the cane. The combination devices are also too heavy to be easily manipulated by an ailing person to retrieve objects.
Accordingly, there is a need for a cane with a grasping apparatus which permits the user to safely and conveniently walk about with the assistance of a cane and also reach for and grasp desired objects with the grasping apparatus during such walking.
There is also a need for a cane with a grasping apparatus which is lightweight and easily manufactured.